Tell-All Success Stories from the Field– Session Panelist Close Up

GRAPH EXPO Empowered In-plants: Tell-All Success Stories from the Field– Session Panelist Close Up

Billed as the headliner event for the new in-plant education track at GRAPH EXPO, and titled "Empowered In-plants: Tell-All Success Stories from the Field," Rochester Software Associates (RSA) announced the session panelists chosen on July 19^th. 

This article is the second of a four part in-depth series introducing each of the successful in-plant panelists.

Introducing: Phil Larson, Shepherd Consulting OK and In-Plant Leader.

This week the panelist we'll check in with is Phil Larson, president of Shepherd Consulting OK, formerly director of AFPress and grafaccent at American Fidelity Insurance in Oklahoma City, OK.  Phil's expertise includes management and development of converged corporate in-plants (data center and transactional printing, IT, fleet, mail and print) and commercial in-plants for smaller businesses.

Secret Number One: Continual Customer Contact Delivers Growth. Cutting Edge Offerings Ice the Cake.

Innovation and invention are the norm where Phil has contributed to the success of an organization. Constant contact with customers and prospects helps define changes, improvements, expansions, and additions to grow product and service offerings that make sense to customers.

Phil sees three core service offerings that impact the bottom line:

1. Online, on-demand sourcing for marketing and office collateral
2. Multi-channel marketing support has been a big growth item.  From custom press with variable integrations and 1-1 marketing, to banners and posters with specialty finishing for added pizzazz
3. Support of multiple companies with branch operations across the United States for office copier/printer/scan/fax and transactional printing of policies, bills, checks, etc.

Million Dollar Savings and Triple Digit Volume Increases at this Insurance In-Plant

While Phil was with Grafaccent and American Fidelity, the high volume in-plant:

• Increased print volume 1,200 percent. Volume grew to two million pages of on demand color and two-three million pages of monthly black and white- a six-fold increase in on-demand order volume, and 40 percent color growth with minimal staff additions.
• Customer orders ranged from 100-400 a day, tracked in the print center via a bar code workflow through shipping, and online with real-time statuses for customers and print production staff via web-to-print software (WebCRD). Because customers and production staff used the same software, everyone worked from the same information, saving time and improving job turnaround.
•  Automation, print on demand and a streamlined workflow reduced on-hand inventory 99 percent, saving the insurance company over $1,000,000 in on-going replenishment and delivering a 45 percent reduction in print costs.

Equipment and Software utilized

Equipment at the in-plant included a range of digital black and white and color and wide format printers and presses, a digital and variable short run envelope press, digital MICR printers, programmable bindery equipment such as custom multi-directional cut and score, as well as management of multiple vendor devices throughout offices and branches of the insurance company. Software used included Xerox FreeFlow Process Manager and MakeReady, EFI Fiery Color, and a number of Rochester Software Associates  products, including: WebCRD Web to print,  WebCRD Dynamics (VDP), QDirect for output management, routing, and job management,  M.I.S. Print to transform legacy datastreams, Adobe Creative Suite, EasyPurl and Zoho CRM.

Tell All Secret Number Two: Incredible Staff and Executive Support

So what drives client success? According to Phil, "Incredible people. The environment we work to build breathes of invention and quick solutions for customers. Client services meets regularly in a no-holds-barred planning and problem resolution session with key clients. Executive support must be at the highest levels. When we have a staff brainstorming session with all staff from all shifts, top senior executives are invited and are encouraged to attend and participate." 

Join Phil Larson and the other panelists October 8^th at GRAPH EXPO's Headliner In-Plant Track "Empowered In-plants: Tell-All Success Stories from the Field"

Learn how the top in-plants in insurance, higher education, government and healthcare are building their success.  Other  panelists include: Jimmy Friend, University of North Texas (UNT) director of printing and distribution solutions, (PDS), Debbie  Gallagher, senior operations analyst, Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Publishing & Distribution Department for the State of Oregon and Gene Voelker, manager Supply Chain Business Services, Parkview Health.

The panel will be moderated by Elisha Kasinskas, marketing director of Rochester Software Associates, developers of the top in-plant Web to print software, WebCRD